Wrong House
by ScrambledEggHeaded
Summary: A short drabble about Joel and Ellie finding themselves in Texas. Joel wants to take one last look at his old home.


"Earth to Joel!" A small fist is smacking him in the shoulder, shaking him out of his brooding. "Huh?", he mumbles as he turns around, taking in the surroundings. Things certainly looked different from what they had looked like in his memories.  
"What the hell are we doing here again?", the girl in front of him asks impatiently.  
"I... I just gotta check on something. Won't take long. C'mon."  
"Whatever", the girl says, sighing dramatically. But he hears her light steps right behind him. It's reassuring and while he doesn't want to admit it to himself, her presence has become vital to his daily routine by now.  
"Where are we, anyway?"  
"...Someplace."  
The girl laughs. "You don't know?"  
Joel ignores her.  
They reach a house. The paint on the walls is cracking and some of the windows are broken, but other than that it still looks remarkably untouched. Walking through the knee-high weeds Joel reaches the door. He rattles the doorknob, which of course proves useless. He sighs. "We gotta try the back door then." They march around the house, into the backyard. Joel walks up to the porch, stepping carefully onto the wooden steps. The floorboards creak but carry his weight. The glass back door is only an empty frame now. He steps through it.  
The TV in the living room has been knocked over, the couch is on the wrong side of the room, turned over. Dust everywhere. Papers and old magazines are strewn all over the floor.  
As he is walking towards the kitchen avoiding to look around, his foot catches on something and he almost stumbles.  
He looks to his feet. An acoustic guitar. Or the remnants of one. The strings had been roughly cut off, certainly having proved useful in one way or another to the person who took them. The body of the instrument is severely scratched and battered. Even if he could find new strings it would be beyond fixable. He takes a deep breath and carefully shoves the guitar out of his way with his boot.  
The kitchen looks even worse, all drawers pulled out, most parts of the stove taken and the fridge showed some splatters of what could have been blood.  
The chances of finding any food left in the cupboards is slim. Still he opens one. Dust trickles down and to his surprise he finds some cans; peaches, tomato soup and several cans of corn. A lot more than he had expected.  
"Whoa whoa whoa!", he hears the girl exclaim excitedly. Even though he's gotten used to her presence, her bubbly personality and sudden outbursts still manage to catch him off guard.  
"Keep it down a little, will ya", he says gruffly. "Sorry", she says quickly. "But look at this! Didn't you say you used to play?" "Doesn't matter now, that one's beyond repair." "Oh." The girl disappointedly drops the guitar to the floor. He can't help but flinch as he hears the thud. "Be-", he begins loudly then stops to adjust his tone to his usual raspy half-whisper. "be careful, okay?"  
The girl dusts her hands off on her jeans and whistles as she makes her way up the stairs.  
Joel quickly stuffs the cans into his backpack. After a futile look into the fridge he turns around. Hearing the girl's steps from above him he realizes something. And runs up the flight of stairs as fast as he can.

The door to the bedroom is open, but inside there is nothing but a dusty mess of debris.  
He ignores it for the moment and quickly makes his way to the room at the end of the hallway. He silently hopes she hasn't gone in there yet. "Ellie?", he calls. "You up here?" He knows she is up here, of course. Nothing. He pushes the door open and takes his first proper look around, taking in the faded posters on the walls and the books on the shelves.  
He steps inside. Ellie is sitting cross-legged on the dusty bed, her dirt encrusted sneakers on the comforter, a book in her hand. He walks over to her and roughly grabs her by the arm. "Get off of there."  
"Ow!", she says more out of surprise than pain as she wriggles her arm free. "Why? It's not like the guys who lived here are coming back anytime soon." She puts the book back on a shelf, her curious gaze trying to find anything else that could prove to be interesting.  
"Ellie, get out of here. Right now." His voice is deep and rough, he is straining to hide how angry he is. Ellie shoots him a confused look but obeys. She walks slowly to the door, deliberately taking her time, looking at the walls.  
Joel exhales deeply, as he shuts the door. He takes a tentative step towards the bed. Then thinks better of it. He shuts out the picture frame he had just seen on the bed table from his mind.  
He leaves the room, hearing Ellie rummage around in the bathroom.  
"Score!" he can hear her say. Her slim hand appears in the door frame, wriggling a box of pain pills.  
"I also found some disinfectant and some bandages." "Good", Joel says as he walks back to the stairs, his body feeling a thousand times heavier now.  
"C'mon Ellie, we gotta get going if we wanna find a place to stay for the night."  
Ellie comes out of the bathroom slinging her backpack over her shoulder. "Why can't we just stay here?" "No", he simply says. He is weary of the argument that will ensue now. "I'm not gonna argue about this, Ellie. I say we are leaving."  
Ellie seems a little cowed. She puts her hands in her jeans pockets and slowly walks behind him down the stairs. "Seemed pretty safe, is all..." she mumbles, loud enough for Joel to hear.  
"Ellie", he sighs, exasperated. "I really have no energy for this now."  
"Okay, okay...jeez", the girl says quietly.

They are slowly making their way down the empty street, westbound.  
"So what was so important we had to check on?" he hears from behind.  
Joel closes his eyes. He curses himself for saying anything in the first place.  
"Nothing. It was the wrong house."  
"Oh", she simply says, not seeming the least bit bothered.

She silently makes a note to never mention the photo album she has safely wrapped in a shirt from that room in her backpack to Joel.


End file.
